Unlike Rúmil, Fëanor considered vowels as indepedent sounds and not just “colours” of the consonants, so he devised the “full writing” (Quanta Sarmë).[2]

However Fëanor also used a more 'conservative' system which seem to have been proved far more popular; he held Rúmil's idea of syllabic analysis of the words by the Sarati, and made also use of tehtar (instead of the full letters).[2].

Although Fëanor was a speaker of Quenya it is possible that he did not invent the Tengwar with Quenya specifically in mind, since the strict Quenya phonology didn't fit absolutely consistently. It's more probable that the Tengwar was created as a general phonological template[4], onto which he later "fit" the Quenya sounds as consistently as possible

Despite Fëanor is said to prefer the Quanta Sarme, he also used a more 'conservative' system which (judging by the majority of the subsequent samples) seem to have been proved far more popular. Fëanor held the idea of syllabic analysis of the words by the Sarati, and made also use of signs (tehtar) for vowels (instead of the full letters), placed over the preceding tengwar/consonants, indicating their “colour”. A consonant followed by a vowel was concidered as a “full letter” (ñávëa or ñáva-tengwë). The sarat ‘ was imported from the previous system, and when a vowel had no preceding consonant, it was used as a carrier for convenience in writing. This system however was used by Fëanor mainly for tradition and brevity, favoring the Quanta Sarme instead.

Apart of the standard consistent characters, there were also additional tengwar which don't fit in the structure. These are usually modifications of the standard tengwar. Hyarmen is a modification of Charma, Úre is of Wilya, and Anna derived from an earlier sarat.

The following table attempts to display how the sounds of archaic Quenya[5], of Feanor's time would be represented with the earliest known Tengwar.

The names are known only from the 3rd Age table composed in Gondor so it is not known if this arrangement existed since Fëanor’s days. It is possible that some of the known names may have replaced earlier, unrecorded forms.

↑ Quenya also made use of a palatal series, the Tyelpetéma. Christopher Tolkien, who made the names known, notes that the names are given in a number of different formulations, and he cannot determine which were the standard ones. The only difference from the Tincotéma was the underposed (for tengwar with raised stems) and overposed (for tengwar with lowered stems) dots. Those tengwar, not included in the tables, must have been ommited from the standard letters.

↑ The original Fëanorean alphabet contained a Grade of “extended” stems, both raised and lowered. The usage of those tengwar (whose names, if they had, are of course unknown) was to represent spirant sounds. As we know, no Amanya language possessed spirant sounds, since the Primitive spirants th, ph, and kh had already became th, f and ch in Quenya. It is possible that they were used for recording Valarin or maybe archaic forms.

↑ In Noldorin Quenya the sound th had merged with s since very early. The word thúlë thus became súlë.

↑ 4.04.1 Those sounds were found only initially. Sometimes written ng- and ngw-, but not to be confused with Anga/Ungwe, which are used only medially.

↑ Óre is given as /ɹ/: “weak (untrilled) r, originally occurring in Quenya”. This quote suggests that Quenya originally contrasted /ɹ/ and /r/, since there would be no need for independent letters if the two sounds were merely allophones of each other. In this case, however, the original distribution of the letters Óre and Rómen must have been different from the one we observe at the end of the Third Age, where both letters are in perfectly complementary distribution, no contrast being possible. If Óre is the original name of this letter, this could mean that it is one of the words with original /ɹ/.

↑ This tengwa is given as Arya, and is attested either as a Rómen or as an Óre with the overdots. Since the sound ry derives from original sy > zy (still present in Vanyarin), the form of the letter should be Áze with the dots, changed after z merged with r. But then this tengwa should be placed among the Additional Tengwar, for it is not consisted of a telco and a lúva.

↑ Anna originally represented ȝ, a sound from primitive g (cf. *galadâ > *galda > *ȝalda > alda). The ȝ sound was early lost, and Anna was used as an initial vowel carrier to indicate an assuming “vanished” initial consonant wherever words begun with a vowel (note that its "ancestor", the sarat ', was also used for ȝ before being used as a carrier. It was inherited as a carrier by Fëanor, and later it replaced initial Anna). This usage tried to explain the relation of words between Noldorin words starting with a vowel where Telerin had g- (cf. Quenya alda vs. Telerin galla), but did not explain all the cases of words without an initial consonant (alca, according to this, should be spelled *hDjaE
that time, although it had never been **galka before). The problem with the name is that Anna is given as derived from the root AN, and not *GAN (although there is some evidence that the latter root is the correct, and therefore its archaic form was *ȝanna).

↑ 8.08.1 The inverted forms of Silmë and Ázë, which were used when followed by a vowel (since they were too tall to receive a tehta). It is not known if these forms were invented by Fëanor or by later users, but Silmë Nuquerna was used in the Mode of Beleriand (as a vocalic y), which makes it possible to be already present in Valinor. If the original form of Arya was an Ázë with dots, there must also have been an inverted form of it (Arya Nuquerna).

↑ The /z/ sound later changed to /r/ only in the Noldorin dialect, and this letter took the name Áre.

↑ Yanta's shape reminds of the Rúmilian letter for y. It might have represented this sound too (Yanta probably written *lD4#
, while this word should read **ainta in 3rd Age spelling). In our attested examples of 3rd Age texts, it occurs only as the -i of dipthongs (in lE
, lHai, oi etc.). Maybe e.g. tuilë was originally spelled *1UlUj$
(tuyulë) like in Rúmilian orthography, before simplified to 1lUj$
. Cf. Úre.

↑ Besides that in the attested examples of 3rd Age, Úre appeas as the -u of the dipthongs (.D
, .Fau, eu etc.), its original use and etymological relation to the word úrë itself are unknown. Since it’s attested in diphthongs in our samples like Yanta is, we can suppose it was used for intervocalic w, which later became v. Maybe taurë was originally spelled *1D.D7R
(tawarë) before simplified to 1.D7R
, while for initial w, only Wilya was used. Jim Allan suggested that úre should be written as .J7R
, a function that reminds of the Rúmilian spelling of long u… – or maybe it was used as u in Quanta Sarme, like in the Mode of Beleriand? Cf. Yanta.

↑Halla represented an archaic breath h, that survived from primitive H only in Amanye languages, while Charma represented ch, that derived from Primitive KH. The problem is that the h of the word halla evolved from the latter sound: KHAL > *khallâ > halla, therefore pronounced *challa in Fëanor’s time. We are lead to the conclusion that there must be another ancient unrecorded name for this letter that had the breath sound h!

Some changes occurred in Noldorin phonology, already in Valinor, that differentiated it from the dialect of the Vanyar: th merged with s, initial ch with h and maybe later, z with r. Those changes were inherited to Exilic Quenya which slowly evolved further.

↑ Some changes took place in Quenya and consisted Tyelpetéma obsoleted as a separate series. The palatalised sounds will be now shown with its remnant, the “following y” underdots.

↑ The Noldor simplified ndy > ny. So Indyo must became *Inyo, making the letter useless and replaced by Nyellë

↑ It is known that for orthographic reasons, Súlë was used for s in words that once were th (eg. thanga and later sanga would be written 3Ds#
, not **iEs#
). One can wonder why it didn’t get another useful value, like Árë did, since Súlë was confused with Silmë.

↑ Initial ch was softened and merged with h, and Charma became "Harma". Harma might still be used initially, but it seems that it was eventually replaced by Hyarmen. Harma was renamed Acha and was used now only medially where the hard sound ch remained unchanged.

↑ As z merged with r and zy became ry. It seems that when Arya was obsoleted: Árë was renamed as Essë, and the ry sound began to be indicated by Rómen/Órë letters.

↑ The 3 sound had been disappeared and the Telco was now solely used to carry the tehtar. But Anna was now used with the “following y” nuntixi to represent the y consonant since it seems Yanta was now used only to represent –i in diphtongs.

↑ This letter was used even after z became r for orthographic reasons. Since there was already Rómen for intervocalic r, (aurel should still be written .D,Rj
, but also as .D7Rj
) Árë was renamed Essë and took the value of long s. Maybe the application of value ss was an influence from the earlier Mode of Beleriand.

↑ This sound was simplified to h, maybe because of Sindarin influence, and later displaced Halla (and maybe Harma) completely. Its old hy value was restored when borrowing the “following y” nuntixi.

↑ This letter was replaced by Hyarmen, but it was still used to indicate the soft initial hl and hr (hrívë, ½7~ByR
)